Unable to unlock, start or drive my Bourton

Hi Guys,

Many thanks once again for your input.

Rang Rygor yesterday and they say the replacement unit has arrived.  All being well they will try and get it fitted next week together with some recall work (replacing the rear brake callipers), providing they have enough technicians turn in (Covid problems). The guy who found the fault originally said he would look at relocating the replacement.  I'll phone Rygor Tuesday morning about the relocation in case another technician is put on the job.  Will keep you updated.

All the best for 2022.

Dave

Hi Boggle (and everyone else)

I see in the last photo of the series that the bottom two rows of five contacts of the connector seem to be encrusted in corrosion. Am I seeing correctly?

The orientation shown in the earlier photos showing the cable harness's route to the module may explain the reason for the water damage. Any water, condensation, or ingress from a leak from outside will track (wick) down the wires and settle at the lowest point in the connector shell where the apparent corrosion shows. Clearly, from your comments this has caused the failure. Unfortunately, motorhomes do get a lot more condensation than white vans. Anyone sleeping overnight in cold weather will have experienced the inside of the windscreen - even with silver screens, which help. I have worried about where this all ends up for a while now.

There are two possible preventive solutions. 1. re-position the module so the connector faces downwards and condensation can drip off the loom before it reaches the back of the connector shell. 2. liberally apply Electrolube grease inside the connector shell behind the connector terminals and squeezed up from the outside of the connector.

Electrolube grease is a really fancy hi-tech product. It has a very high dielectric strength (a good insulator) until its thickness is less than a few microns like when two contact surfaces are forced together. At this point, its resistance falls to the point where the "contact resistance" becomes less than that of a dry contact connection. It gives good protection from electrolytic moisture and water damage as well as oxidation of the connectors and soldered joints. I have used Electrolube SVG extensively over the years without any problems on this sort of connector, although the instructions say it may not be suitable with ABS or Polycarbonate plastics. There are other Electrolube products that may be suitable, so contact Electrolube (website) for advice and where to buy. Always gonna be cheaper than a new module!

Of course, both approaches will give best protection.

I will be taking a look at my 2019 build Bourton for this issue, so thanks for the heads-up.

Dennis

I had a very similar thing happen to my Porsche with the BCU which was located under the passenger side footwell at the lowest point. Why vehicle makes put such sensitive electronic equipment in such locations beggars my understanding.

Our first night in the van was a few weeks ago and I was horrified about the amount of condensation was on the inside of the windscreen. I bought a sort of wipe on a stick think to get most of it off. I think I will nor order one of those silver external blind things as it seems from the post above that these help.

Modern vehicles have far too much electronics in them for my liking.

Hope yours is sorted soon

Well, good news at last!
Just before New Year I had a phone call from the service manager to let me know that the replacement EZS unit had arrived at Northside Trucks in Doncaster and that they would be starting work on relocating and refitting it, together with fitting new rear brake callipers when they resumed work after the Xmas break.
After getting a call a couple of days ago to say the work was complete, we collected it this morning. All the previous recalls and the new EZS have been coded to the vehicle.
The EZS has been moved  further forwards and about 10 cm right, away from its original location on the uninsulated sidewall of the footwell and away from the corner of the windscreen where water drips could hit it. It now resides directly behind  the glovebox and above the fuse box, strapped to the main wiring harness by a cable tie. It is now in a very dry position where I am assured water cannot drip onto it or the harness connectors. It hasn’t been enclosed as this will allow any ambient humidity to evaporate. We will see!
Northside Trucks have been very proactive in supporting the warranty claim to Mercedes Benz UK and I cannot thank their Service Manager Holly and technician James enough.

As for the radio we were told that the cause was incomplete software in the tuner in the tuner which has been resolved by an update. Certainly when I started the engine the tuner brought up around 40 radio stations, whereas before it was only finding 5 or 6. On the journey home the radio was holding stations and I was able to sweep left and right to select others. I hope this will be a permanent resolution and Other Mercedes Auto-sleeper owners who are still having radio drop out problems should contact their local Mercedes’ Commercial dealer or Auto-sleepers to get their radio software updated. 

I plan to get in touch with the customer service manager at Autosleepers as this relocation of the EZS unit is a very easy and almost cost free modification that they could undertake on their own production line to prevent future occurrences, and they could also make sure that the radio software is up to date. 

The photos were taken from the floor level of the passenger side, looking upwards.
Cheers,
Boggie.

 

Boggie wrote:I plan to get in touch with the customer service manager at Autosleepers as this relocation of the EZS unit is a very easy and almost cost free modification that they could undertake on their own production line to prevent future occurrences, and they could also make sure that the radio software is up to date. 

Good to hear you got it resolved.

Personally I don't think it's worth making that suggestion to A/S. They won't be interested because, to be blunt, it's not their problem. If they move the EZS or mess with the radio and it results in a different issue, MB would have every right to void the warranty - so they will just want to leave it alone! Hopefully MB will catch up with this and arrange for the problems to be fixed during production... eventually...

Hi Fellow mwmbers.

Over the past three months a lot has been posted by myself and others on the topic of  the EZS failures which myself and some other members have experienced.

Having now had the failure  resolved by Mercedes-Benz UK under warranty, I wrote to the recently appointed Customer Care Manager at Auto-Sleepers in Willersley to inform them of my and other failures, and to advise them of the simple preventative modification that would stop it happening in future.

AS have picked up on my feedback and raised the issue with other senior managers who are looking at implementing the modification that Mercedes Benz applied to my Bourton. It will also apply to other Mercedes Sprinter based models.

I have had a reply from him this morning requesting further feedback from other owners, so I urge all of you who have been affected to read a copy of the emails which I have pasted below. Please read it and respond  via the Auto-Sleepers Website and their contact form if your MH has suffered an EZS failure or random Electronic failures.
Please reference your enquiry with FAO Customer Care Manager  re EZS failure


THere are two separate replies from AS pasted below, which illustrate that AS are taking this matter seriously, so lets ive them some good honest feedback!

1ST MESSAGE 03/02/2022
Dear Mr Lawrence
Thank you for your email of Thursday 3^rd February, I am pleased that your motor home has been repaired and returned to you. I fully appreciate the nature of the issue highlighted and would agree that it is a relatively easy solution proposed by yourself. As such, I have forwarded your email to the Quality Manager and the Sales Director, the Quality Manager would be able to implement changes to the manufacturing process and the Sales Director can liaise directly with Mercedes-Benz. The slight hesitation that I have is that I must ensure that by making the modification, we are not invalidating the base vehicle warranty as any modifications should be performed by Mercedes-Benz or an approved technician. I must also involve our Homologation Engineer who will investigate and guide us to ensure that any actions do not have any repercussions for our owners or ourselves in the future.
Thank you again for your constructive feedback and I shall let you know the outcome of our discussions as soon as possible.


2ND MESSAGE 11/02/2022
Dear Mr Lawrence
Thank you for your email. During the course of my discussion with our Sales Director, he expressed an interest in the other cases of which you are personally aware. We do not always get base vehicle failures reported to us by our customers as they are usually aware that they have to seek assistance from Mercedes-Benz, as such, we would be very interested to hear from other Auto-Sleeper owners who have suffered the same failure on Mercedes based vehicles.
I would be extremely grateful if you would request that they use the contact form on our website and to mark the communication “FAO Customer Service Manager” to ensure that it reaches me. These other reported occurrences will give us a more robust channel of complaint to Mercedes, that may allow them to authorise the modification to be done here on the assembly line, rather than having to wait for their technicians to address the issue retrospectively.


Cheers,
Boggie

Hi,
Has anyone reported in to A-S on this issue of EZS failures?
Cheers,
Boggie